THE HUMAN SECURITY AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME NEXUS: THE BALKAN ROUTE

The traditional concept of global security was state centric, focused on identifying, analysing and eliminating the threats stemming from their relations in the international system. These threats referred mostly to the use of military force between states; hence they were racing in order to procure vast armament arsenals, conventional and nuclear, in an effort to achieve the advantage of force superiority against potential adversaries.Read more

THINKING ABOUT SECURITY -- AGAIN...

A little over a year ago, Athens and several other cities in Greece were in flames. The trigger for that unprecedented wave of violence was the shooting death of a high school student by police. Within minutes of the shooting, throngs of anarchists, hooded street thugs, and looters, Greek as well as foreign, intermingled with students of all levels and other "discontented" youth, some of whom were as young as twelve (!) had seized the streets and begun burning, plundering, and laying waste across businesses, large and small, banks, public buildings, and university campuses.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: STILL THERE, STILL GNAWING

Summertime in Greece is traditionally a period of letting sleeping dogs lie, a time when most people retreat into the slumber associated with the holidays and the general slowdown across the spectrum.

This is the time when unpalatable facts and figures are generally removed from broadcasting the “news”, with program schedulers going en masse for inane “human interest” topics; the latest on the price of ferry boat tickets; and such volcanically important announcements as the latest trysts of popular female reality television hosts and the saucy developments in the bottom feeder “glamour” sub-culture populating Greece’s “glittery” islands.